depressed cat

The Twenty Two Words blog just posted a picture of a shy cat.  In responses, I had to post my pictures of my depressed and slightly annoyed hairless cat.  (Who is pregnant now, so we will be expecting some little furry wrinkly kittens soon.)

Netflix Pick of the Week: Life After People

My Netflix pick of the week is going to be the History Channel series titled, Life After People.

My two boys and myself seriously enjoy watching shows like this.  We don't watch the NBA or the NFL, no... no... That's not for us.  We like the documentaries.  And this is a series that we find to be absolutely fascinating.  Here is the Netflix description:

What would happen to Earth if people simply vanished one day? Using special effects and relying on the speculation of experts in fields as diverse as geology and engineering, this series imagines a fascinating post-human future. Iconic landmarks, at the mercy of the elements, collapse and decay, erasing the last traces of human existence. Meanwhile, new predators prowl the ruins of once-mighty civilizations, dominating the abandoned world.

The show doesn't seek to explain what happened to all of the people, it simply wants to answer the question, "...what would happen to our stuff?"  It always surprises me how quickly our things would decay and rot and fall to nothing.  It reminds me of this passage:

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy..."(Matthew 6:19 ESV)

Click here to watch Life After People on Netflix.

Other Wise than God has Eternally Purposed

A. W. Pink, from his book, The Sovereignty of God, at the end of his chapter on the Sovereignty of God in Administration, states this profound paragraph:

The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.  His government is exercised over inanimate matter, over brute beasts, over the children of men, over angels good and evil, and over Satan himself.  No revolving of a world, no shining of a star, no storm, no movement of a creature, no actions of men, no errands of angels, no deeds of the Devil -- nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass other wise than God has eternally purposed.  Here is a foundation for faith.  Here is a resting place for the intellect. Here is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or Devil, but the Lord almighty who is ruling the world, ruling it according to His own good pleasure and for His own eternal glory. 

Possibly as a moment of worship, he goes on to quote Isaac Watts:

Ten thousand ages ere the skies
Were into motion brought;
All the long years and worlds to come,
Stood present to His thought:
There's not a sparrow or a worm,
But's found in His decrees,
He raises monarchs to their throne
And sinks them as He please.

Amen.

Simple Minds?

While working in the computer lab with my "Gear Up" for math class, another class came into the media center to take some personality quizzes. The site they were using was simpleminds.com. Several of them were taking the "Famous Leader" quiz. They were all having fun with it after one of the girls in the room was labeled as Sadaam Hussein. Needless to say, I had to take the quiz. Here are my results:

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Then I had to take the "Which classic movie are you?" quiz. Here are those results...

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

True?

The Bull

The Bull
by Matt Harmless

He stands within his stall of wood,
That long term resident the bull.
Around he's been since barn has stood,
With docile splendor at its full.
Be not deceived at quiet stance,
Impression made at the first glance,
For underneath the tranquil stare,
This behemoth doth really glare.
So when the wooden fence is lowr'd
You'll find real quick you have been gored.

(Yes.  It has a secondary meaning.  I am not actually writing about a bull.)

Giving

I preached on giving yesterday.  It wasn't as difficult a topic to discuss as I originally thought.  I have heard pastors before talk about the difficulties of giving.  What I actually learned was that this topic is very natural to the very essence of who we are as Christians.  The sermon ended up being a tad bit on the long side, but I will attribute that to the fullness of this topic.  Frankly, I barely scratched the surface of what needed to be discussed.

Anyway, if you are interested in hearing these thoughts on a Biblical perspective of giving, you can listen right here:



You can also download them by right-clicking here and choosing to save the mp3 file.

As a little disclaimer, I felt very much, as I was preparing this message, that my logical flow of thought was a little off.  To some, this may not be an issue, but for some reason, I always feel like I need a precise logical flow.  When it doesn't come together logically, I always feel a little off when I am preaching.  For me, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the difference between the tangible presence of God's Spirit while studying and the presence of a logical flow of thought.  Though I am sure this is not the case for everyone, it is true for me.

Netflix Pick of the Week: The Pluto Files

As we are gearing up to go back to school, I thought it might be appropriate to post an educational movie this week.  Therefore, my choice is the NOVA produced movie, The Pluto Files.  Here is the Netflix description:

In this installment of "Nova," Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson (director of the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium) dishes out surprising facts about Pluto, the notorious "ex-planet" that so many people still seem to love. Discovered in 1930, Pluto was demoted to a mere member of the Kuiper belt in 2006. But passionate opinions -- and emotions -- remain about its place in our universe.

I watched this movie with my boys a couple of months ago.  As it states in the description, the host of this series is Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.  I found this particular topic to be interesting because of his personal connection with the "demotion" of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet.  This series does a great job of making the  material both interesting and educational.  (As a teacher, I know that isn't always easy to do.)

A word of warning, since this topic deals with cosmic objects, it also jumps into cosmic origins. Since this program is secular in nature, their default position is to determine the origins in a universe devoid of God.  Personally, I have never shied away from opportunities like this.  It gives me the availability to teach my children some of the inconsistencies of the naturalistic theories of origins.  What always amazes me is their ability to perceive those problems on their own.

Anyway, if you are already a Netflix subscriber, then I would like to recommend this movie.